Overall, Tidal has the starting framework of what could be an interesting and engaging artist led and backed company. With the product as-is, Spotify or Apple launching a lossless quality tier could make Tidal irrelevant-- but for one major thing: superstar exclusives.

Ed Sheeran, who is preparing to kick-off his North American tour in May, has just announced that he's extending the already almost sold-out series of shows with another run through the States in September.

Jay Z brought along some (very) famous and influential friends for this week's re-launch of Tidal, his high-fidelity music streaming service. The rapper's strategy to reach the most prospective subscribers began with a mysterious viral campaign, which saw artists with a combined 156 Twitter million followers change their avatars blue and declare #TIDALforALL in similar tweets.

Jay Z’s Tidal is a lot of things: a star-studded streaming service with 17 of music’s biggest names as key stakeholders; an ambitious new player in a still-nascent but increasingly competitive marketplace that includes iTunes, Beats, Spotify, Pandora, Rdio and Deezer; and a $56.2 million bet on the future of high-definition “lossless” audio, a technology in which fellow musician Neil Young is also heavily invested.